Debunking that whole 'glitch' explanation from #Amazonfail...

Amazon has censored it's lists by deleting sales rankings, hiding books and even withholding royalties on sales.

http://www.afterellen.com/node/48877

BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY: This situation has existed in plain view now for more than just one week or even just one year, and I’m sorry to harp on this, but it is apathy that ultimately emboldened Amazon to extend it’s gay and lesbian literary purge to its paperback division last week…

THIS PEOPLE. This is why I find the apathy and shrugs maddening, the defense of Amazon so enraging. Oh, it's not a violent act like beating people in the streets outside a bar or turning fire hoses on a protest. But this sort of insidious shit will continue to creep into our lives until we stand up and say "NO MORE." This little stuff will poison everything.

(no subject)

I love the photos on Squishable of people out in the world with their giant, round, squishable creatures. They have a giant kitty now. One day I will have to get one, as they are so adorable in their round, squishy way.

algorithms are made by human beings

The issue with #AmazonFail isn’t that a French Employee pressed the wrong button or could affect the system by changing “false” to “true” in filtering certain “adult” classified items, it’s that Amazon’s system has assumptions such as: sexual orientation is part of “adult”. And “gay” is part of “adult.” In other words, #AmazonFail is about the subconscious assumptions of people built into algorithms and classification that contain discriminatory ideas. When other employees use the system, whether they themselves agree with the underlying assumptions of the algorithms and classification system, or even realize the system has these point’s of view built in, they can put those assumptions into force, as the Amazon France Employee apparently did according to Amazon.

From Why Amazon didn't just have a glitch by Mary Hodder


In both the Amazon glitch and structural social groups, the impact of system-driven automatic choices is often irrefutable: a category of books and a category of people suffer from discrimination that has a clear negative impact on their opportunity to succeed.

In both cases, the causes of the problem are constructs - one technological, one sociological - a creation by human beings that have no inherent malice, but result in discrimination because bias seeds the way the systems make choices

From How the Amazon glitch relates to structural discrimination and racism by poster Keith, which continues the discussion of Hodder's piece.

The comments on Hodder's piece are amazing, disheartening examples of the ignorance and unconscious bigotry in motion.